The end has come. ...oh gods. I'm writing this note before having written the chapter and I don't have much of an idea of what's going to happen. I really, really hope my Tenshi doesn't do something stupid. Ack.

On another note, for a few minutes whenever I thought of the song 'Whisper', I kept remembering 'Truth Is A Whisper' by the Goo Goo Dolls. Oddly enough, that would have fit too if I squiggled a bit. Heh. Anyway, I feel that the chorus is important, so pay attention to that, as well as the 'fallen angels' verse. Hell, pay attention to everything!

--

Whisper

Indecision was not something that Suguru was familiar with. He usually knew exactly what he wanted and went after it. Look at the way he had gone after Yuki to get him to talk to Suguru when he was being a prick. His final decision had been to wait it out until the CD came out.

"You want to do what!" the producer cried, banging her head on the table. "Tenshi-san, please. We'd have to get all kinds of contracts, and--"

Suguru scowled. "Officially, Akuma's contract with N-G never ended. It hasn't been renewed, but considering that he was supposed to have died we have most rights to him. My Last Breath is going to be on that CD."

She whimpered softly and tottered off to talk to Tohma. Maybe he would listen to reason. Suguru just smiled. He was already aware that he had won. The CD was just a couple of days from being finished, provided he could kick a couple of people into motion. Then the first CD without Akuma would go out into the world.

Going Under, Bring Me To Life, Everybody's Fool, My Immortal, Haunted, Tourniquet, Imaginary, Taking Over Me, Hello, My Last Breath, and Whisper.

Having Taki write a song had been one of Suguru's better ideas, actually. He had written Whisper, though Suguru had added in the part about fallen angels. Despite having the feeling that he was being mocked somehow, it was an incredible song. He had known that given the chance, Taki would be something.

Tonight would be the first concert in a while, a farewell to the city and the people in it. Then he would find Akuma before his tour, with any luck.

Suguru took a breath, then another. This wasn't really as difficult as it sounded. It wasn't. He needed Akuma and Akuma needed him.

It was like a sick circle, spiraling through his body in a way that he couldn't explain. It was fear, sheer terror, mixed with love and regret. It built up until he just wanted to scream but didn't want to bring attention to himself to do so.

Catch me, as I fall

Say you're here and it's all over now

Speaking to the atmosphere

No one's here and I fall into myself

This truth drives me into madness

--

Tatsuha was home. He didn't want to be here. It was a hard place here, full of funerals and school and little else. There was nothing here that he hadn't seen a thousand times over and hadn't disregarded as unimportant.

His father knew that something was going on and he didn't like it. The older Uesugi was a man that liked to know what was going on his children's lives so he could have a steel grip on it. Tatsuha was his heir now, after all.

"Tatsuha? Is something wrong?"

Tatsuha looked up through a fringe of black hair to meet the curious blue eyes looking down at him. Miroyuki Aoitsuru was half-gaijin as well as the heir to his father's MEI-- Miroyuki Enterprises Incorporated. He would know better than anyone else what it felt like to be under a father's thumb, yet... "No, I'm fine."

Aoitsuru shrugged and headed back into the temple. His uncle, Daven Whitehall, had recently died and they were here for the funeral preparations. Tatsuha should probably be listening in on that to make sure that the old bastard was doing it instead of him, but he didn't want to.

"Tenshi's rubbing off on me, isn't he?" he asked the wall. As expected, the wall did not answer back. Luckily, he hadn't been expecting that it would.

I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away

If I will it all away...

What was it like, to be Fujisaki Suguru? Tenshi? Were they two different people? It seemed like it, sometimes. Suguru was sly, scheming, and smart, yet strangely introspective when alone. Tenshi was sorrowful and shy, but somehow bolder than Suguru was. Yet they both made up the same person.

Who was Akuma Seti? Last night, Suguru had told Tatsuha about him a bit. The way he talked about Akuma made him sound... perfect. It was hard to understand, especially since Suguru hadn't spared Akuma's faults, but when someone loved someone else that much you had to try and understand why. And it was clear that Suguru loved him, almost with his entire being except the part that he had for some reason chosen to give to Tatsuha.

'Eiri is going to laugh and laugh and laugh...'

The Miroyuki family filed past, done with the preparations. One woman, a younger one, was crying. Idly, Tatsuha decided that she must be the young widow, Whitehall Inazuma. Nobody else looked sad. Tatsuha had heard that the deceased man was something of a jerk, but he supposed he shouldn't speak ill of the dead.

"See you at school in a couple of months," Aoitsuru said as he past, bowing to Tatsuha shortly. Tatsuha bowed back and he watched them leave.

"I've decided that you should stay with Eiri for a while," Uesugi suddenly announced. Tatsuha looked back at the man to stare. "You're no good to me if you're constantly distracted and it's been a slow season. Get a girl or whatever it is that you do and don't come back until you can focus on what you're doing."

'Does that mean I never have to come back?' Tatsuha blinked. "Ah... okay. Thank you, father."

He was going to have to tell his father about Suguru sooner or later, then it would go one way or another. Not now, though. Life wasn't perfect and, in a way, he liked being a monk. He'd figure it out with time.

--

Don't turn away

Don't give in to the pain

Don't try to hide

Though they're screaming your name

Don't close your eyes

God knows what lies behind them

Don't turn out the light

Never sleep, never die

"Have you given up?"

Tohma looked over to see his cousin staring at him pensively, recently trimmed hair pulled back and eyes looking wide with curiousity. He looked younger than he had any right to be. "Given up about what?"

"Trying to make me see a psychiatrist before letting me see Akuma."

Tohma blinked. He had assumed that Suguru would get the idea when he hadn't immediately sat on him and tried to get him to see it Tohma's way. "Yes. No help will get into your thick skull if you don't let it, after all."

Suguru wrinkled his nose. "How eloquent." He paused, light from the window that was behind him framing him. "I think its getting better." Tohma looked at him expectantly, causing him to tilt his head. "It... doesn't hurt as much anymore. It doesn't seem as important."

Tohma blinked. 'Not as... important?' "Suguru, you have had a horrible life. How can that not be important?"

"What a way to put it," Suguru grumbled. "It just doesn't seem as sharp or something. I just feel... better." He frowned. "It won't last, but I trust you to tell when it gets worse again."

"You could be lying to me," Tohma pointed out. "It doesn't make much difference anyway. You'll see Akuma sooner or later and we'll have to deal with that. Everything will work in one direction or another. I just have to watch you and make sure I slip anti-depressants into your pepsi."

The keyboardist frowned. "Thanks a lot."

To want to be with someone so badly that you would take the chance to ruin everything you already have just to see them one time. To distance yourself from a person to keep yourself from hurting them because you care for them so much. Were those two examples of love? Was that what it meant to need someone this badly?

And what was Tatsuha? What was it to nearly die every time he frowned? What was it to hate to see the sorrow every time he wondered about Akuma and what would happen? Was that love too? What was it to feel like you could tell a person everything just because you knew that, somehow, they would understand?

True love is when love and like juxtapose, yet what was it for true love and need to be one and the same. Not just want-- need.

"I can't keep running from it, Tohma-kun."

Tohma looked at his cousin and saw it clearly in his eyes. That determination that bound back the fear, that shielded gaze that was far too much like his own for his own comfort. "Then maybe you're actually ready this time.

Suguru chose not to comment.

--

Fallen Angel's CD was amazing. Akuma had a copy delivered to him from an online service and it had been incredible. Suguru had grown up so much.

Akuma traced over the cold plastic cover of the CD, around the curve of the angel wing on the cover. One was black and one was white, curved around an ornate Celtic cross. The CD had been titled 'Demons'. Akuma had smiled.

The singer laid back against his head and let the sound of Tenshi's voice wash over him. His angel. His beautiful angel. "Who is it that made you sing like that, Suguru? Who do you love now?"

It was obvious that Suguru was in love again. He had always loved so completely. Akuma hadn't understand how a kid could bond so irrevocably to a person. Then Akuma had understood. That was the kind of person that Suguru was. On top of that, losing his parents when he was so young made Suguru cling all the tighter to the people that he did have.

The first time that he had seen Suguru as Fujisaki Suguru of Bad Luck instead of Tenshi, he had nearly had a heart attack. Short hair and in the background was not like Suguru. The kid liked the spotlight even if he didn't like it directly on him. He liked to be the one people talked about. He liked to be amazing.

It was going to be a hot autumn. There were a few more weeks left until the schools started and got the annoying loud kids off the street. Then, maybe, Akuma could have his peace and quiet again.

The doorbell rang and Akuma got up tiredly. He rarely left the apartment, so he had everything delivered to him. He didn't want anyone knowing that he was Akuma Seti of Fallen Angel. He had just wanted to give Suguru a chance to live without him, to be happy. Apparently, that had happened.

The only one that was important in this was Suguru. The only one that deserved this was Suguru. He was so incredibly special, so incredibly perfect.

Akuma opened the door.

I'm frightened by what I see

But somehow I know that there's much more to come

Immobilized by my fear

And soon to be blinded by tears

"Suguru." It was Suguru, from head to foot. Hair pulled back into a ponytail, shorter than it had been in the last section of the papers he had been shown in. He looked so remarkably young, sunglasses perched on his head and eyes wide with fear. 'We were so stupid.' His hand clenched the door, knuckles going white. "W-what are you doing here, kid?"

Suguru's head ducked slightly to break their gaze and for some reason that small gesture terrified Akuma. "I had to find you." He smiled slightly. "Did you know that it's incredibly selfish to hold your last breath?"

Akuma looked away. "Yeah... I know. You shouldn't be in America, Suguru." 'I need you too much to let you go.'

Suguru's nails bit into the soft flesh of his palms. "You left, Seti. I needed you and you left. I needed you so much and you just left. Do you know what it felt like to have done that to you? Do you know what its like to feel like you killed someone?"

"Of course I do," Akuma snapped. "I thought it was okay, I thought we were getting better. Then you did that. Did you think I could live without you? I-- dammit!" Suguru flinched when Akuma's fist met the door. Akuma instantly stepped back. "I love you," he finished in a much quieter tone.

I can stop the pain if I will it all away

If I will it all away...

"I was still there, Seti," Suguru said softly. "I wanted you back. I thought you were dead and I wanted you back. When I woke up and they said you were dead I felt like I was in hell. Did you know-- I tried to kill myself again afterwards by overdosing on the pain pills. Not much came of it, but I wanted you again so badly." He sighed. "I'm dating Yuki Eiri's brother, Uesugi Tatsuha." Although Akuma had expected it, it still made him flinch. "I love him. I need you."

Akuma ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "It doesn't even matter anymore, does it, kid? Even if-- even if I could be with you I can't anyway."

Suguru stepped closer, so close that Akuma felt his heart stop. "He said I could have anything, Akuma. Anything that I wanted. I want you. I want him. Can I have that?"

How could Suguru stop him with that one, wide-eyed look? How could you make him feel like he was dying just by looking at him like he was the only man on earth?

Fallen angels at my feet

Whispered voices at my ear

Death before my eyes

Lying next to me I fear

She beckons me, shall I give in?

Upon my end shall I begin?

Forsaking all I've fallen for I rise to meet the end

"Yeah, Suguru. You can have that."

And Suguru smiled. It felt like being reborn. It felt like sunshine after rain. It felt like Suguru, and that was more important than anything else. "Good. Because I wasn't going to leave until you saw it my way and Tohma would kill me if I missed the tour."

"Tohma would kill me. He already 'talked' to me about that."

Suguru grinned. "I imagined he probably did. He was being too tame."

He looked so radiantly happy that Akuma had to kiss him, placing his mouth over Suguru's almost possessively, but he was so careful. Suguru was human, so he was like glass and infinitely breakable. He tasted so good after it had been so long. Akuma drew him closer, trying to grasp the feeling so it couldn't slip away. The neighbors started hooting.

Akuma sighed. Suguru laughed.

"This is going to be difficult," Akuma warned. Suguru nodded happily. "I want to meet this Uesugi guy to make sure that he's good enough for you." Suguru continued nodding. "If you do it with him, I want pictures to drool over." Suguru stared. Akuma smirked. He thought that would get Suguru's attention. "I'm going to have to go back to Japan now, aren't I."

Suguru smiled. "Actually, I have a concert in New York City. You're welcome to come along."

Akuma frowned. "Just this once."

--

Don't turn away

Don't give in to the pain

Don't try to hide

Though they're screaming your name

Don't close your eyes

God knows what lies behind them

Don't turn out the light

Never sleep, never die

Tenshi adjusted the microphone slightly as the crowd roared at his appearance. "If those in my American following know me at all," he said in very accented English. "Than they know that I dislike introducing myself to the crowds." The crowd yelled in appreciation and Tenshi was fairly sure that over the noise he heard some fangirls going on and on about their 'beloved bishonen.'

He threw a glance to Akuma as if to say 'sure you don't want to back out now?' Akuma just smirked.

"Well, I'm not going to talk to the crowds tonight. Akuma is."

There was silence as Akuma stepped up to Tenshi and the spotlight flooded the microphone, revealing both of them to the light for the first time. Then the crowd screamed.

Tenshi grinned and, backstage, Tatsuha smiled.

Servatis a periculum

Servatis a maleficum

It certainly wasn't going to be easy, but if he could see Suguru smile like that more than once, than he would do anything. He was willing to bet that was one thing he and Akuma agreed on.

Maybe this was the beginning. Maybe this was the beginning of Suguru's smile.

owari

--

Holy shit. Holy... It's... oh. It's... done. (sobbing quietly) I don't know how this happened. I wrote it in one sitting. It took two hours. I listened to Evanescence the whole time. Oh. Wow. Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum, is what plays at the end of Evanescence, latin, and it means "save us from danger, save us from evil"

Miroyuki Aoitsuru actually came from my original fiction, and I needed someone anyway, so... Oddly enough, he's a side character in that too. Love 'im though.

Um... what do I do now? I'm writing a YGO fic, so if you watch that show or read the manga or whatever, go read it. And review. I might write a sequel. Do you want a sequel? Tell me if you do. I'm still considering. If there is one, if it's a CD-fic, it'll be the CD Getting Away With Murder by Papa Roach. So tell me, and review and stuff. There will most likely be an Akuma one-shot out soon.

It's over... I'm still in shock. Wow. I'd like to thank the reviewers, and the computer who so kindly chose to work long enough for me to post this, and... Hehehe. I'm redoing Fallen Angel (I've already done the first two chapters), but I won't rewrite it since I can see so clearly how I got better as it went along. I'll just re-format it a bit. Try and give me seventy-seven total reviews, why don't ya? My lucky number is seven, you know. Or an even hundred. That'd be funny, though doubtful. Try and prove me wrong.